First Published via HUB Magazine when I was Culture Editor.

Date Published: 6th March 2023.

While one may compare Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (2022) to Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2023), I suggest viewing it in the same light as Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989).

Steven Spielberg’s latest film, The Fabelmans, follows a young boy who dreams of becoming a director and explores filmmaking’s beauty. The film also beautifully showcases the divide in the family between those who are logical, like the father, and those who are artistic, like the mother. While the mother is demonised throughout the film due to her affair with the father’s best friend and shows signs of mental illness, it is still clear that her love of music keeps her going through life.

Like Dead Poets Society, the father wishes his son to end this phase of art and find a real career. Unfortunately, both sons continue their love of art despite their father’s wishes, slowly destroying both relationships. Both films show that the artistic son looks to his mother for support and hopes to defend himself from his father.

Dead Poets Society follows a group of boys in a boarding school as they gain a new English Literature teacher that shows them the beauty of poetry: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute, we read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion”. When he went to the boarding school, this teacher was part of the Dead Poets Society. In following his footsteps, the boys decide to recreate this society. Each boy is presented with his lifeline of art.

Though it is clear from the first fifteen minutes that Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) wants more from life, he wants to continue with the newspaper, but his father refuses to do this as he should do something more meaningful. As the film continues with the influence of Professor Keating (Robin Williams) to follow his passion, he auditions for the drama production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. When his father finds out, he takes him out of boarding school and informs his son that he will go to military school, as the behaviour is unacceptable. Neil Perry sees no other way out. In tragic symbolism, he places the forest crown from the play on his head and goes into his father’s office to shoot himself in the head. One may also infer that art could symbolise homosexuality, as the film closely follows his relationship with Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke).

Todd Anderson is presented as a shy kid, similar to Sam Fabelman (Gabriel BaBelle), who finds his voice through poetry. However, where his father discourages Sam in his pursuit of filmmaking, Todd’s parents seem absent from the film, only to arrive after Neil Perry’s death.

Both films also present art as a group-oriented activity between boys. While Sam is in Texas, his scout’s group joins in with his filmmaking. There is this beautiful moment Sam is directing a war-inspired film in the desert of Texas, where Sam gives a story to one of the lead boys. The scene is used to create emotion in the audience. As he ends the scene walking through the pretend dead bodies of the soldiers, the lead boy begins crying. Though this raw emotion of crying is not in Sam’s camera shot, only the audience of The Fabelmans sees this vulnerability. This could suggest how the patriarchy tells men how to behave and keep emotions down as they are viewed as feminine.

While The Fabelmans is generally a serious film with moments of beauty and humour taken from family interactions, Steven Spielberg breaks the fourth wall in the last scene. As Sam Fabelman is being interviewed and questioned by the same director that inspired him to make films, there is a lesson learnt about where the sun should be in shots. The director asks Sam to point out where the sun and light are coming from in the paintings in his office. It is observed that the sun should always be either at the top of the shot or from the bottom to make it interesting. As Sam Fabelman leaves the office, the wide shot of the street has the sun in the middle of the shot. There is this moment of hesitation and an undeniable movement to change where the sun is in the shot.

The Fabelmans ends on an uncertain note of whether Sam ever makes it as a director or not. The film takes place throughout his childhood to college years, whereas the Dead Poets Society only occurs at that time of year. Dead Poets Society begins with a ceremony for the new year and ends with the funeral of Neil Perry. As an audience, we do not know what happens to the boys after this life-changing year. However, in the most tear-jerking scene ever written, Professor Keating has been fired due to Neil Perry’s death. As he leaves, Todd Anderson stands on top of the desk and yells, “O, Captain. My Captain”. Slowly, the other boys begin standing at their desks to say goodbye to Professor Keating. This shows Professor Keating has done his job writing to make these boys think for themselves and express themselves through art.

References-

Chazelle, Damien. Babylon. Paramount, 2022.

Spielberg, Steven. The Fabelmans. Universal Pictures, 2022.

Weir, Peter. Dead Poets Society. Touchstone Pictures, 1989.